Analysis Of Amit Chaudhuri's Freedom Song

1776 Words8 Pages

So the stage is set for the story of ambition. Mallika 's musical gift is untrammeled by traffic with commerce, and to threaten her family life by pursuing "personal ambition" is unthinkable to her. Nirmalya - who, as it is wryly put, has "recently become aware of the fact that he existed" and is voraciously consuming philosophy - thinks his teacher ought to devote himself seriously to his high calling with no thought of material gain; but Shyamji thinks he can do both, teaching and playing "the lighter forms" now, and retiring to what is serious at some indefinite, ever-receding point in the future. "You cannot practice art on an empty stomach," he complains. This weighty schema is balanced by a comedy of manners. Minor characters fade in …show more content…

It produced several thin books of poems, some stories and a huge number of translations before I realized that I could never quite grab what I was looking for and so I moved on to simpler terrain. But like all good Bengalis I never let the dream die. For I thought some day I would go back to it. To draw the subtle shades of dreams and images that I grew up with on what were once College Street and Harrison Road. But now, after reading Freedom Song, I have given up the idea. Why? Well, simply because Amit Chaudhuri has written the book I always wanted to write and, in fact, he has written it far better than I could have. It is his language that holds you first. Like the Ancient Mariner 's eyes. The way he describes a place, a moment, an experience, a sharing, a hurt a pain. It is all understated, casual. You smell the city. You feel its impossible magic as you eavesdrop on Khuku and Mini or watch Bhaskar and Piyu trying to live out their not exactly exciting lives. In fact, the drama comes from its commonplace characters living out their unchallenged hopes in a city that has given up trying to cope with transition. Trapped in their own time warp, the main characters try to understand the world outside through familiar metaphors of pain and hope and an undying romance with the politics of

Open Document